Dealing with Your Demons
by MasterQwertster
Summary: There's tricks and trials to dealing with your demons, especially when you have a literal demon to deal with. Season 4 spoilers. Ghost Rider drabbles.
1. Dealing

**Dealing with Your Demons**

Robbie Reyes didn't need Agent Phil Coulson to tell him he'd screwed up.

After all, it was _his_ uncle that got kidnapped by a crazy ghost lady that the Rider could have fried without even trying.

Except he wasn't there.

He had decided that letting the Rider burn the last member of the Fifth Street Locos was more important than seeing his uncle safely out of there.

Or maybe he hadn't decided, maybe the Rider had talked him into it.

The prison was full of guys with blood on their hands and it riled the Rider up to no end to be denied his duty of burning them. It was only Robbie's will to see getting Tío out through and the reminders from Agent Mackenzie that allowed them to walk in without getting down to business. But on the way out… on the way out there was no S.H.I.E.L.D. agent threatening to put him under if he saw a flicker of flame and no ghosts to fry, Tío was just an easy walk away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. quinnjet, and the Loco was _right there_ with nothing to protect him from them.

He'd never admit it to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but when the vengeance was personal, it was near impossible to keep the Rider contained because Robbie _wanted_ them to burn. Normally, he didn't really feel anything about the Rider's kills. Those people had earned what they got. Whether that was a side-effect of being possessed by the Rider or the fact that Robbie himself just didn't care… he didn't like to think about that. But when it was personal, when he was doing it for Gabe, he couldn't chain up the Rider long because those whispers in his ear that _they deserve it, let 'em burn_ were far too in-sync with his own thoughts.

And now?

Now Tío was who the hell knows where with a ghost lady that could make him die of fright and Gabe… Gabe might not even be safe because the shooting that put him in a wheelchair and made Robbie spontaneously combust was a _hit_. The only reason he hadn't known to be worried for his little brother sooner was that he'd never let any of the other Locos talk, just scream for a second or two. And worse yet, he didn't even have any leads on the hit other than the fact that it existed because he'd been too eager to let the Rider work back then and the one from today didn't have the answer. With the way things were, he wasn't sure he could keep Gabe in the dark anymore, not if he wanted his little brother to be safe.

He'd screwed up and he knew it.

Robbie just hoped that S.H.I.E.L.D. could help him fix it because he knew they would be the ones forced to deal with him if the Rider went on rampage to avenge Gabe or Tío.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

So I've finally stepped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe of fanfiction. I'm totally loving the 4th season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Ghost Rider and after watching episode 5 and the preview for 6, I wanted to write a little something Ghost Rider, so there's this. Daisy did say that Robbie was sulking elsewhere when May found her.


	2. Working

**Working with Your Demons**

Had Agent Phil Coulson known recruiting Robbie Reyes was a risk? Certainly, but wasn't any empowered recruitment risky?

These people were capable of things beyond belief, things that could turn city blocks into warzones. Some used it to do good, the Avengers being a prime example (Civil War and collateral damages aside). Unfortunately, there were those who used that power for harm, and there were more of those than Coulson liked.

And then there were people like Robbie. The grey ones who did bad things for good reasons. At least, Coulson knew Robbie was _trying_ to do good, even if it was in a brutal fashion that disregarded the law. But then again, vengeance was a nasty thing, something Coulson knew better than most.

It was really too bad that Director Jeffery Mace didn't see the value of greys.

Greys were the guys that if you got them working with you, they'd see the job done. Sure, it'd get a little messy if supervision got lax or slipped, but the results were good. Better yet, greys tended to latch on to the people that helped them out. Case and point: Daisy Johnson back when she was Sky, the hacker trying to make heroes and expose the shadow of S.H.I.E.L.D. She was outside the law, trying to do what she thought was good, and when S.H.I.E.L.D. picked her up and put her to work, she got loyal to them because they gave her the opportunity she wanted: to make the right kind of difference.

That Director Mace couldn't see the value in recruiting strong guard dogs like that kind of irked Coulson. If it was still him or Fury in charge, getting a grey aligned with S.H.I.E.L.D. would have earned a pat on the back, maybe a gold star if handled particularly well. Instead, the Director was concerned with media backlash and Coulson had to wonder if Director Mace had really looked at S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel files because some, like say Natasha Romanov or Clint Barton, were assassins and criminals before S.H.I.E.L.D. picked them up and gave them directions.

So when Jeff had come looking to take Robbie (and Daisy) into custody, Coulson did his best to hide him. Not only was Coulson working on bringing the powerful Ghost Rider under S.H.I.E.L.D. control through friendship, he was also protecting their best, possibly only shot at handling this ghost case.

Then Robbie proved Coulson was doing things right and that the only way to control the Ghost Rider was by being friendly.

So now here they were, Director Mace trying to arrest a guy they couldn't contain and had just beaten him around without really trying, if Coulson was judging things right. Director Mace was demanding punishment for the crimes Robbie committed and Coulson agreed.

He also knew just how to go about it: put Robbie and the Rider under S.H.I.E.L.D. control to work off the wrong they did by doing things right. They don't kill unless S.H.I.E.L.D. approved it. It would work. Coulson knew because he'd already tested them. Robbie was willing to work with them, even if he had some bad attitude about it. The Ghost Rider could bring people in alive upon request, better yet, he could go toe to toe with empowered individuals for such missions. And the prison proved that if it wasn't personal, Robbie could keep a lid on the Ghost Rider when surrounded by his usual targets.

It would take some work to convince Director Mace, but Coulson was sure he could pull it off.

Recruitment was his specialty.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

So I guess I'm making this a thing now, maybe. AoS has just been too good lately. And come on, you know Coulson is recruiting Robbie long term.


	3. Living

**Living with Your Demons**

Gabe knew that Robbie had changed since that night with the Fifth Street Locos and the Good Samaritan. He'd just never realized how much.

There were the obvious things: how Robbie didn't smile as much, the constant babying as Gabe figured out how to live without working legs, and the stronger protective streak from his big brother even after Gabe had figured his wheelchair out. But Gabe supposed those things were to be expected after a near death experience. Even more so when Tío got sent to prison, leaving them to fend for themselves.

It was the secretive changes he should have paid attention to.

He'd worried, of course, when Robbie had taken to going out at night in the Charger, usually not coming back until after the sun had risen or even just going straight to the garage for work in the morning. But Gabe had never seen so much as a scratch on his brother those mornings and a simple phone call to the garage could locate Robbie when he didn't come home, so Gabe let it slide. His brother was safe and that was all that really mattered.

Which was a little harder to believe after _that_ morning. Robbie had been out for the night again, but it was becoming so regular that Gabe had started to ignore it. Until he found the blood in the sink. There were signs that Robbie had tried to clean it all up, but Gabe had rushed him so he wouldn't be late for work, so the job wasn't complete. Worry had gripped Gabe again and when Robbie got home, Gabe watched him like a hawk, trying to find where the blood came from, but there was nothing. Robbie's movements were the same as ever, no wincing, no tenderness, no cradling or babying. Gabe even indulged Robbie's desire to help him with anything and everything just to see him go through a wider range of motion and still saw nothing wrong.

That made new worries (if it wasn't Robbie's blood, whose was it?), but his brother _was_ safe, right? He still came home without a scratch, even if Gabe found blood every now and then.

Gabe almost wished he hadn't learned the truth about those nights.

His brother was the murderous Ghost Rider. What's more, Robbie became the Ghost Rider for Gabe, to avenge the damage done to him, to both of them. Gabe sure as hell hadn't asked for the wheelchair, but just as surely, he'd never honestly hated it either. It could be inconvenient and annoying, but Gabe had his life and his brother and that was good enough. He didn't need avenging, or blood on his hands because Robbie cared too much.

And it _was_ all on Gabe. He knew that because when Robbie, the Ghost Rider, went after the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, the only one who could stop him on that whole plane was Gabe, and all he had to do was call for his brother. How many had died because he hadn't known, hadn't been there to tell Robbie no, that killing people, even if they did horrible things, was wrong?

He couldn't face that kind of guilt, not right there and then. It probably hurt Robbie to see his precious little brother run from him and that hurt Gabe too, but he needed time to come to terms with what Robbie had become and his role in it.

What do you do when you find out your brother is host to a demon? Gabe needed to find his answer and fast, before Robbie got himself into more trouble.


	4. New Deals

**New Deals with Your Demons**

For the first time in years, Robbie Reyes was free of the Ghost Rider.

And it pissed him off.

Were they stuck between dimensions? Yes, but there was nothing, _absolutely nothing_ , that said they were going to stay there. Especially when those S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were _not_ about to give up on the others in their ghosted group. And if he was honest, Robbie was pretty certain they'd want him back too, if only to deal with Tío and his newly empowered god complex.

But what does the Rider do? It freaks the hell out and _runs away_ like a little bitch, like one of their marks. Not only that, but the Rider jumps ship to the nearest person with pent up rage and a willingness to act, which just so happens to be the good-hearted Mack. A man who could never live on vengeance like Robbie did, who wouldn't have enough hate in his heart to overpower the Rider's drive, or even a contract to help draw the line.

That's why he had to chase the Ghost Rider, even as Coulson and Fitz tried to get someone to listen and find their way home, because it was _his_ monster that got loose, thus his responsibility.

As Daisy drove his Charger after the Rider (his poor Charger, those scratches, they weren't going to fix themselves without the Rider!), Robbie had a moment to feel what it was like to be free of the Ghost Rider. It was great, he was himself, and… and the truth was he wasn't really all that different, just powerless. He still had hate in his heart and a desire for vengeance, he just didn't have the supernatural power to help him carry it out. Hell, he still didn't feel any guilt about the lives _they_ , because he saw now that it was never just the Rider, took. Everything had been as much the Rider as him when they were bonded.

But it wouldn't be like that for Mack.

Mack lacked that hate and thirst for vengeance that the Rider fed on and lived off of, that would satisfy it enough to be still until it was time to get to work. That's why it was the first thing Robbie used to try and bargain the Rider back into him. The Rider may not have liked sitting back when Robbie demanded it, but Robbie never let its desire for vengeance remain unattended for long, so he was surprised when the Rider told him that anger and despair were enough for it to survive.

Robbie tried to use the deal, their contract, to bring the Rider back, but it seemed that no corporeal body could null it. He supposed it made sense though when he took a second to think about it, even as his mind raced for a way to get the Rider back. Robbie broke his end of the deal, to provide a living body that the Rider could use in exchange for the vengeance reaped for the body's owner. And that's when Robbie knew how to get the Rider back.

A new deal and vengeance for both sides.


	5. Duty

**Duty with Your Demons**

It was really nice to get out of that hell hole Robbie fell into with Tío.

In that place, it was the Rider, not him. Which was probably a good thing since everything seemed to want to kill them and the Rider kicked ass, hard. It didn't hurt that agreeing with each other more helped Robbie's body channel more of the Rider's power and pick up some new tricks, making surviving there easier. He really liked all the new chain tricks. Those were damn useful.

But seriously, Robbie had missed Earth, Gabe, his Charger, people not trying to kill him all the time. He had really missed friendly relations with someone who wasn't renting headspace.

It was also, in its own way, nice to have a job, a purpose again besides kick this asshole's ass cause he's running at us, asking for it. Hunting down and removing the book that ruined Tío and the robot who had gone kill crazy on his S.H.I.E.L.D. friends (like in every movie ever) was certainly a worthwhile job that Robbie was more than happy to help the Ghost Rider with.

The job was trickier than expected, mostly because the robot who became a real girl could _teleport_ and the Ghost Rider scared the shit out of her, but they managed. Well, Coulson managed and his deal meant that Robbie would, eventually, get to come home again (hopefully for good, but really, Robbie would be satisfied with actually getting to see Gabe next time). Though he did feel bad about putting another agent through hosting the Rider and it was a bit of a bum deal with Coulson's end still left to be upheld. It wasn't much better than Robbie's own trip with the Rider to dispose of the Darkhold in that hellish world.

Eh, he'd manage. And so would Robbie. They both had a job to do and that's all there was to it.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

This is soooo late. Basically, I failed to pick up the second half of season four and only just finished watching it on Netflix. I was so happy that Robbie and the Rider got to come back at the end (so bad ass fighting the LMDs and Aida), even though he had to leave again. At least there's the promise that he'll come back again since the deal with Coulson isn't done.


	6. Counseling

**Counseling with Your Demons**

"Look, I get that you guys think I need help coming to terms with what happened with Robbie, but I don't," Gabe insisted to the S.H.I.E.L.D. counselor. "I got through the loss of using my legs without some shrink to walk me through it, I can get through my brother being the Ghost Rider without one too."

"Last time you had your brother to support you, Mr. Reyes. It's not healthy to keep things inside. You need to talk about this."

"I know that. I also know that I don't want to talk about this with a stranger who's never even met Robbie," Gabe said, voice level.

Honestly, he didn't want S.H.I.E.L.D. butting into his life like that anyways. Gabe was willing to take the worker's compensation pay for Robbie going M.I.A. working with S.H.I.E.L.D. since he was, technically, Robbie's dependent (but mostly because college was expensive), but he could do without them trying to force him through counseling sessions (even if they were free of charge).

The counselor frowned at him and Gabe sighed.

"If I'm being honest here, I really want to talk to Robbie himself about this, but he's gone now." And yes, Coulson had been kind enough to put together a file of everything S.H.I.E.L.D. and (more importantly) Coulson himself knew about the Ghost Rider, so Gabe knew that Robbie was only 'gone' temporarily if his predecessor was anything to go by. "So in his stead, I'd like to talk about this with people from Coulson's team. They were the ones Robbie was working with, so they know more about what he was like as the Rider." Some of them had also been the Rider for a little while, though Gabe wasn't going to say a word about that to this shrink. Coulson had implied that the Rider was a subject best kept quiet, even amongst S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and Gabe trusted him. "Just give me a way to contact them regularly and I promise I will talk with them about this."

It took some more needling to convince the S.H.I.E.L.D. counselor to agree to it, but Gabe knew how to argue against stubborn people (he'd had way too much practice against his brother) and was well familiar with what he needed to come to terms with a big change in his world (hello wheelchair). It took a while, but they eventually set him up with a special video tablet to call Coulson's team once a week at varied, pre-determined times.

Between the files, video calls, Gabe's own experiences with acceptance, and the fact that Robbie was the only family he loved and had left, it didn't take long for Gabe to find his peace with Robbie being the Ghost Rider. Once that was achieved, the weekly calls turned into more social calls that allowed the team to keep an eye out for Gabe, like they promised Robbie.

All that was left was for Robbie to come home from his (third) hellish trip so Gabe could hug his brother (and hit him a few times for being so crazily caring and keeping secrets).

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Rewatched season 4 and got a couple more ideas for this story. This one comes from the comment by Mace to get Gabe some counseling in S4:E7. The file on the Ghost Rider comes from Coulson's hint that he knew the previous Rider in the next episode and the fact that the Rider didn't seem to be in S.H.I.E.L.D.s (digital) data base before Robbie.


	7. Searching

**Searching with Your Demons**

"Hand 'em over, Gabe," Robbie demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gabe lied, not looking up from his homework.

"The keys to the Charger. Come on, I know you have them."

Gabe's gaze slid over to his brother as he considered trying to string the lie along.

Not even a month after the hospital let them (or rather Gabe) return home and Robbie was sneaking out at night again (or had he been doing it while Gabe was still confined to the hospital?). Gabe had tried hiding the keys all over the house for the past week to keep Robbie from driving off, but his brother always found them like he'd put the keys in those odd places himself. Gabe was worried about these late-night activities, but he wasn't sure how to confront Robbie about them. Not when they seemed to be part of Robbie's way of coping with the accident (besides the overprotective hovering over Gabe as he acclimatized to his wheelchair). Still…

"Just stay home tonight. Please?" Gabe asked, turning pleading eyes on his brother.

Robbie hesitated. He didn't want to leave Gabe alone like this (he hadn't missed the subtle suggestion from Gabe trying to hide the keys), but his new passenger was so insistent on the work they had to do and he didn't want Gabe to see him lose control to the demon (he could barely insure that it didn't come out during the day and _had_ to go on the hunt at night).

"Look, I can't stay home, got some business to take care of, but I'll… I'll be back in two hours, max. Okay?" Robbie compromised. Two hours should be plenty of time to let the Rider loose on the little dump he had tracked some of the Locos down to and get home again.

"Promise?" Gabe asked. It wasn't quite what he had been hoping for, but certainly better than nothing.

"Yeah, I promise I'll be back in two hours."

Satisfied, Gabe pulled the Charger's keys out of his pocket and handed them over to Robbie. "One last question before you leave."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"How do you always know where I hide the keys?" Gabe asked, honestly curious about his brother's almost supernatural skill in finding them.

Robbie smirked. "That's a secret I'm not revealing. Now do your homework and I'll see you soon," Robbie replied, ruffling Gabe's hair. There was no way that he was telling his little brother that the demon inside of him allowed him to possess and sense their ride, including its keys.

* * *

 _Three Months Later_

"Gabe! Where did you hide my gloves?" Robbie shouted, stomping through the house.

He didn't exactly _need_ the gloves, but they made the night job easier. The gloves made sure that Robbie didn't leave any finger prints behind and they allowed the Rider to make a full fist. The bones may be what make a fist hard, but a fist of just bones is decidedly less effective, so the Rider liked wearing gloves because it could extend its power to them to fill them for a nice, solid fist. So yeah, the gloves weren't strictly necessary, but Robbie still wasn't going out without them.

"You're not getting them back, you're staying home tonight!" Gabe yelled back, ignoring the fact that he couldn't feel the gloves tucked under his legs.

Taking the Charger's keys got Robbie to be back at a reasonable hour, but Gabe wanted Robbie to stay in for a night. He'd noticed that his brother always wore his leather jacket with the white arch zipped up and leather gloves when he left for a night ride. Hell, he never really left the house without them, though he would at least tuck the gloves away in the jacket's pockets often enough. So Gabe had decided to hide the gloves tonight since there was no way he could nab the jacket off of Robbie's back without him noticing. It was proving surprisingly more effective than taking the keys since Robbie was tearing through the house instead of beelining for the gloves like he did the keys.

"Gabe, come on. Por favor?" Robbie tried, walking back into the living room.

"No way. I'm putting my foot down. You're staying home tonight, Robbie," Gabe stubbornly said.

Robbie felt conflicted. Should he stay home like his crippled baby brother demanded or meet the Rider's demands to go out and wreak some vengeance? Could he even stay home (and himself) against the Rider's demands?

"Please, Robbie. Solamente uno noche," Gabe begged upon seeing his brother's hesitation.

"…Alright, I'll stay."

There wasn't anything else Robbie could say, not when Gabe was begging. He wasn't going out tonight and he wasn't going to turn into the Ghost Rider either. Tonight he was staying home with Gabe because Gabe was the reason he wasn't afraid to go out and kill in the first place, to make the 'hood a little safer for his brother (and everyone else).

* * *

Translations: Solamente uno noche -just one night

 **Author's Note**

Just some thoughts on when Robbie was first starting out as the Ghost Rider and Gabe's uninformed reaction. I think that Robbie/Ghost Rider can kind of sense the Hell Charger or else how did he know where it was being held by S.H.I.E.L.D. when he came back to deal with Aida? And considering a car won't start without the keys, it only seems logical (to me) to include the keys in that vehicle location sense. Also tried to reason why all the Ghost Riders wear gloves in that bones don't make for proper hands, particularly in the fist position.


	8. Magic

**Magic with Your Demons**

"Hey! What're you doing to my brother's car?!" Gabe shouted, wheeling out of the house as fast as he could.

The guy in the red cape started and the sparkler light constructs around his hands fizzled out as he turned to face Gabe.

"This car belongs to your brother?" the guy asked, surprised.

"Uh, yeah. That's why I called it 'my brother's car,'" Gabe sassily replied. Seriously, who was this old guy who looked ready to go LARPing or to a Con?

"Do you know where your brother is?" the stranger keenly asked.

"Depends on why you're asking," Gabe said evasively. It wasn't exactly wise to let on that there was only him in his wheelchair around if the stranger wasn't friendly. Especially since the light show earlier was probably some form of powers and Gabe had a hard enough time fighting against normal people.

The man blinked. "Right. Uh, let's start again, if that's okay?" he offered and Gabe nodded, willing to see where this would go. "Dr. Stephen Strange, acting Sorcerer Supreme. I'm here to check in on the entity known as the Ghost Rider since it's on my list of potential extradimensional threats. It's not generally a threat to worry about, usually more helpful in safeguarding the Earth from others from its home dimension, but I'm just going through the whole list seeing as I'm new management. Your brother's car here has traces of its power on it, so I was using my magic to try and locate the actual thing using the power left on the car."

The kid kept up his level face at Doctor Strange.

"Look, I know this sounds weird, but it's the truth. The little light show I had going on when you started yelling at me? That was magic," he explained. It kind of broke the rules of secrecy, but if the books were right, the Ghost Rider was a two-part entity and this kid's brother was probably the human part. He was probably going to find out sooner or later, if he didn't know already.

"It's not the magic part I'm having trouble believing, it's the good intentions," Gabe explained.

Doctor Strange nodded, unoffended. He'd done a bit of research to find the current Ghost Rider's stomping ground and some of the reports of its victims hadn't alluded to the innocent blood they had spilled to get the Rider's attentions at all. It was also, admittedly, not the nicest of neighborhoods, so the distrust was a fairly natural defense mechanism.

"I understand. Though to be honest, I'm probably the only sorcerer with the power to maybe make it in a fight against the Ghost Rider, but pretty lacking in the experience department to pull it off," he decided to reassure the kid.

"Thus ' _acting_ Sorcerer Supreme'?" Gabe questioned. Robbie's S.H.I.E.L.D. friends had been giving him some pointers on dealing with potential threats and part of that was paying attention to what was said and connecting the dots.

"Thus 'acting,'" Doctor Strange agreed. "So how about I give you my phone number and the next time your brother has the time, have him call me so we can set up a little check-in meeting." He was careful not to mention how the kid's brother, the Ghost Rider, probably wasn't around (or maybe even in the dimension with how long his spell had been taking to locate it) at the moment.

Gabe gave the acting Sorcerer Supreme a considering look. "… I can do that," he said, turning around to grab a notebook and pen from the backpack hanging off his wheel chair. Gabe offered them to the doctor, who pushed them back to the boy.

"It's better if you write it down. I lost most of the dexterity in my hands a while back, my hand writing's barely legible," Doctor Strange explained.

"Okay," Gabe accepted. He knew better than to pester someone else about a crippling injury.

Gabe dutifully wrote down the phone number Doctor Strange provided along with the sorcerer's name and the emblem for the New York Sanctum (he showed Gabe the amulet that signified his current stewardship over it to copy). With that done, the acting Sorcerer Supreme left via Sling Ring, which Gabe had to admit was pretty cool (and looked a lot like what Simmons had described Robbie's fiery chain made portal to look like).

* * *

Robbie was glad to finally be home. The Hell dimension had lived up to the name (again) and it was just nice to be in control of himself again. The best part though was that he was _home_ , not just on Earth again, but at his house and with Gabe again. He was going through the stack of letters and papers Gabe had set aside for him during his absence when he came across the lined notebook paper with a phone number, the name _Doctor Stephen Strange_ , a circle with some curving lines through it, and the instructions to call the number when he had the time.

"Who is this guy?" Robbie absently wondered aloud.

 _[Interfering little magic user.]_ the Spirit of Vengeance replied to Robbie's surprise. _[When you call him, tell him to piss off, I'm still doing my job.]_

"Sure," Robbie agreed. He trusted the Spirit enough to tell someone else to not poke their nose into their business.

Then Robbie blinked. "Wait, magic's a thing?"

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Yeah, so I noticed that Robbie's self-made portal's animation was really similar to Sling Ring portals, so this crossover (is it really a crossover when they're both MCU?) with Doctor Strange happened. It also works really well when sorcerer's are supposed to guard against extradimensional threats/intrusions, which the Spirit of Vengeance is, and Doctor Strange has a threat list he's keeping an eye on according to the mid-credits scene, which I think Ghost Rider would qualify for even though he's friendly-ish.


End file.
